Why don't you just vote on a weekend?! in germany, voting day is always a sunday, so most citizens combine a nice leisure day with some voting...

Voting on a tuesday is dumb.

27 Stroke B: Voting on veteran's day?

The head of al Qaeda's Iraq operations yesterday gloated in a new audio tape over the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and praised U.S. voters for punishing President Bush and the Republicans in Tuesday's midterm elections.

OK, nearly every newspaper has reported on this tape from Al'Queda. The right is busy trumpetting terrorist propaganda after spending all their energy two weeks ago slamming CNN for playing terrorist propaganda. My question, where is the transcript? Why can't I read the statements myself instead of reading the parts that some reporter has decided to extract. Some of us like to think for ourselves, please.

Al Qaeda gloats over U.S. election - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

The Libertarian Democrats: [Oppose "big government" when it comes to the economy, and also oppose big government interference in personal matters, such as religion and lifestyle decisions.] "About 9 percent of all Democrats."

This group contains the highest percentage of full-time workers as well as the largest proportion of Democrats earning more than $50,000 a year.

Washington Post Article Describes Pro-Freedom Democrats

Rep. Alcee Hastings (FL): Tapped to chair the House Permanent Standing Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). Without a serious intel/national security background, Hastings is said to have gotten up to speed on the material since joining the committee. Still, there's a congressional impeachment in his background, and charges of a $150,000 bribe from his days as a judge. In the wake of major corruption scandals in the intel world, is it so hard to find a little less complicated candidate to oversee them?

The worst thing the Dems can do right now is put people in power who are likely to wind up abusing it. The order of the day should be professionalism.

TPMmuckraker New Dem Leaders have their own problems

This is why the Republican's lost the election. When the exit polls said corruption they weren't talking about Jack Abramoff. Anything else that anyone else says is pure spin.

Monday, August 29th 2006:

I ama fashion god.

Brown's emails during Katrina (PDF)

One Democratic win that I think folks on MemeStreams might think twice about cheering is the close Senate race in Montana which gave Republican Conrad Burns the boot. Burns has been a leader in Telecommunications and Internet Policy for many years. I don't agree with everything that he has done in the space, but there is a lot this community would thank him for. Most importantly, I think, is his successful effort to liberalize Crypto export controls. I'm linking a speech he gave on the subject in 1996:

American businesses and computer users face a threat _ and it's a threat from their own government _ because the current administration won't let American companies export encryption at a level higher than 40 bits....

What this means is that commerce and communication on computer networks including the Internet is not reaching its full potential.

While certainly there is a lot of potentially valid criticism of Burns out there, the Internet probably won't be better off for having him out of office.

One Democratic win I'm not happy about...

The reality is that, despite fears that our children are "pumped full of chemicals" everything is made of chemicals, down to the proteins, hormones and genetic materials in our cells.

And although some fret about the "cocktails" of chemicals we are exposed to, a potent brew of complex chemicals is present in a humble cup of tea — which contains healthy polyphenols, for example.

This is even better than the last story about politicians winning the mid term election, because its not supposed to be a joke!

Telegraph | News | 'The reality is that everything is made of chemicals'

Day One: Put new rules in place to "break the link between lobbyists and legislation."

Day Two: Enact all the recommendations made by the commission that investigated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Time remaining until 100 hours: Raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, maybe in one step. Cut the interest rate on student loans in half. Allow the government to negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients.

Broaden the types of stem cell research allowed with federal funds _ "I hope with a veto-proof majority," she added in an Associated Press interview Thursday.

All the days after that: "Pay as you go," meaning no increasing the deficit, whether the issue is middle class tax relief, health care or some other priority.

I like all of this. Financial conservatives are worried that an increase in the minimum wage will create unemployment. However, the Administration seems amicable to it...

Pelosi Says She Would Drain GOP 'Swamp' - washingtonpost.com

WASHINGTON, DC—After months of aggressive campaigning and with nearly 99 percent of ballots counted, politicians were the big winners in Tuesday's midterm election, taking all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, retaining a majority with 100 out of 100 seats in the Senate, and pushing political candidates to victory in each of the 36 gubernatorial races up for grabs.

Politicians Sweep Midterm Elections

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the controversial face of U.S. war policy, quit on Wednesday after Democrats rode Americans' anger over Iraq to victory in Tuesday's congressional elections.

That was too fast. It was planned. But, I'm still suprised to see Rumsfeld being offered up as a sacrifice to a Democratic voting public. I would never have imagined that two years ago, when it appeared that social conservatism was more important to America than running an effective war.

It strikes me that the right didn't have a really good social wedge issue for this election. They are saving up. I imagine they'll have one for 2008. They'll claim the blue Congress has obstructed them on something, likely abortion, and they'll ride back into power on it.

Rumsfeld quits after Democrats ride Iraq to win - washingtonpost.com